Pubdate: Thu, 15 May 2003
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2003 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Brian Dickerson of the Detroit Free Press.

LEGAL MARIJUANA IN CANADA?

If international relations were a movie, Canada would be one of those 
demure heroines who remains in the background for most of the film but 
surprises the audience at a pivotal moment by standing up to -- or ignoring 
- -- the leading man.

It's as if we have to be reminded now and then that our closest neighbor is 
a nation unto itself. Our economic fates may be joined at the hip, and 
Michiganders may continue to find Ontario less exotic or threatening than 
Florida, Texas or (God knows) California.

Back to Toronto

But that sovereign state thing never really goes away. And now -- just when 
you thought it was safe to go back to Toronto -- our licentious friends to 
the north are flexing their independence again.

Sunday's Toronto Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian parliament may 
take up legislation decriminalizing possession of marijuana in amounts 
below 15 grams - - the quantity found in about 20 cigarettes -- as soon as 
tomorrow. If it's adopted, a person caught with a few joints would escape 
with a ticket and a small fine.

Drivers, stop your engines!

The Bush administration -- which admirably resisted international hysteria 
over Ontario's recent SARS outbreak -- has displayed markedly less 
composure in the face of decriminalized pot.

John Walters, the White House drug czar, has stumped Canada from the 
Atlantic provinces to Vancouver, warning about the proposal's impact on 
Canadian youth and, more ominously, cross-border trade.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says that relaxation of Canada's 
cannabis law would force customs officials here to increase scrutiny of 
vehicles entering Detroit, increasing costly delays at the busiest truck 
crossing in North America.

Border Security

So let me get this straight: Right now, with the nation's foreign and 
domestic policymakers grimly focused on preventing the next 9/11 and 
security officials fretting about the ease with which terrorists might 
smuggle biological or chemical weapons into this country, we're at one 
level of border security. But the prospect of tourists slipping across the 
border with a few joints in their toilet kits means that we may have to 
kick it up a notch?

Am I missing something? When was the last time a group of stoners burned 
down anything bigger than their own campsite?

Drug-enforcement officials worry that relaxing penalties for marijuana use 
in Canada will embolden traffickers to set up more smuggling operations 
near the U.S. border. They also worry that American teens in border states 
will sneak into the Canadian provinces to get high.

To Canadians, of course, this is the quintessence of Yankee arrogance: 
Expecting trade threats and Canadian police to do the work of negligent 
American parents. (It's 10 o'clock: Do you know what country your child is in?)

Trade Partners

I suspect that the DEA is right, to a point. Decriminalizing Canadian pot 
likely will lead to greater use in the United States. But when push comes 
to shove, the commercial realists in the Bush administration won't let the 
bluenoses threaten a $62 billion trading relationship.

The likelier long-term consequence is that the United States will 
eventually follow Canada and most of the European community in the 
direction of decriminalization. And you know where that leads.

Just watch: In 10 years, we'll be using reefer tax revenues to pay for MEAP 
scholarships.
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MAP posted-by: Alex